Week 23 - From Marner's Hat Trick to Meta AI's Flaws: Unpacking Political Gridlock, NBA Debates, and Gaming's Ethical Frontiers
Welcome to week twenty-three, or, more officially, week 2. Yes, dear reader, I am back, and I am still keeping this trend going for another unemployment cycle.
This week was heavy on sports. It’s always nice when both the NHL and NBA playoffs line up exactly with some of the best versions of each.
The NBA currently sits with the Knicks leading the Spurs 2-0, and more and more, this is looking like it’s going to be a sweep. The games are hella close, but also absolute domination. I didn’t give this Knicks squad enough — no, respect — prior to this series, thinking that whoever came out of the Spurs/OKC series was gonna prance in and just claim their prize. I was—respectfully—wrong. That said, if the Spurs do perform a miracle and come back from this deficit, then, well, I was always Team Spurs.
As for the NHL — damn, this has been fun. Not sure what’s better: Carolina fans chirping Hart (“No Means No”), or Mitch Marner having an absolute redemption season, leaving many Leafs fans — who were all so smug about getting rid of him last year — perplexed and in denial.
Culturally and in Tech speaking — all eyes are on the SpaceX IPO looking to crash and bring down our markets, and early investors are all looking pretty smart right about now (looking at you, Teachers’ Pension Plan).
That said, I’m still perplexed by the AI valuations and still sitting here somewhere between a complete boomer and a complete doomer, depending on which side of the bed I wake up on.
Full disclosure: the script that helps put all this together was AI-generated.
Ah well, anyway, have a great one, and till next week!
Tech
Holy Michael Scott!
You can’t cure stupidity, but you can nervously laugh at it.
For all the criticism we give AI hallucinations, I’m reminded of the sheer stupidity of many around us.
AI Hypnosis?
To summarize, the AI hype about replacing work is meaningless and boosted by those who cannot demonstrate its actual return on investment, only their proclamations.
When this bubble inevitably pops, we won’t have anything of worth to show for it.
This is why Canada’s current strategy scares me.
Playlists…
Instagram is bringing us the ability to group Reels into playlists.
Why this is considered such a novel idea and wasn’t included from inception still annoys me.
Why TikTok hasn’t given me the ability to do this yet also annoys the f*ck out of me.
Yes, that’s bad.
I’m all for digital sovereignty. Canada should control its own digital infrastructure, or at the very least, not be beholden to American oligarchs who do.
I get that scale will always be an issue, though.
I also think this AI play is going to backfire ‘bigly’.
Not gonna lie, this is kind of cool.
Also, a reminder to never leave your sh*t unpatched and publicly open.
I just wonder how fast and what resources the hosted AI models need; at some point, that bandwidth/CPU is going to cost them a pretty penny.
Also, I’m down with open-source, self-hosted AI models.
That’s really kind of them!
There’s a point when you realize just how out of touch ‘tech bros’ are with life. Then there’s the point where you realize that some are just absolute sociopaths.
The LinkedIn C-suite crowd is probably confused by why people would be bothered by this.
Who could have seen that coming?
Social engineering has been around forever, so I mean, maybe we give the AI bots some slack?
Or we don’t, and just recognize how dim-witted this entire thing is and how wild it is that we’re going back to 2003 levels of account trickery.
Zuckerberg deserves the slander.
Culture
Based Target Manager?
Pokémon card scalping is wild to me. Actually, all scalping is wild to me, including real estate, sports tickets, and even sneakers.
Let’s take something people really want or need, hoard it, and then profit.
Late-stage capitalism has everyone behaving like goofs.
Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé!
Wemby is out here trying to inject a bit of European sports culture into the NBA, and I’m here for it.
I’m not sure how well this translates, but I’m down for anything to make the games more fun.
Ultras in the NBA—is North America ready for it, or does it feel overly contrived?
This was crazy.
I saw the smoke from this fire from 40 kilometers away.
It’s crazy that a scrapped metal car could burn like this; it’s literally scrap metal, that sh*t’s not supposed to burn like this.
Curious what happened.
You know you’re old when something this viral and culturally significant has been happening for the last three years and you’ve never heard of it.
Maybe this is a sign that I’m not as chronically online as I once was.
Either way, I’ve got to add The Amazing Digital Circus to my ‘to binge’ list.
Politics
Congrats to the Chattha family!
One of the earliest—dare I say first—boosters of me making content (blogging) 30-odd years ago was my then-university roommate.
Nice to see them getting recognized.
The Chattha name is associated with the Chattha family, responsible for multiple development projects and community initiatives spanning over 40 years and four generations.
The ‘get back to the office’ crowd…
‘after sitting for just 30 days so far this year, taking an extended summer break.’
Well, isn’t that nice.
An absolute sh*t bag.
Stories like this make me think we should reconsider capital punishment.
You know he did it; he admitted to doing it. Why are we paying to keep him going?
What kind of reform are we hoping for this tw*t?
The Art of the Deal.
Oil prices are up, inflation is up.
‘A masterful gambit, sir.’
The theater of the Trump presidency keeps on giving, and those of us not living in America continue to deal with it.
Somewhere, he probably figures NATO will have to step in for their own interests, so f*ck it.
What a bunch of goofs.
I’m hard-pressed to think these guys aren’t a Government of India psyop to make everyone question the movement.
Nothing says ‘Punjabis want Khalistan’ more than crashing the biggest Punjabi artist’s show, an artist who has himself lent his voice to highlight the Sikh plight.
Sports
Absolute cinema!
I don’t even know what this was advertising, but I’m sold, and I want it.
Also, I need to see how this ends in theaters.
That Marner guy’s not bad!
Probably one of the wildest games I’ve sat through in a while.
- Carolina had two goals overturned,
- Mitch Marner with the natural hat trick (3 goals)
- A Penalty shot and a missed on at that, (by Marner)
- Vegas dropped a 4-0 lead in the third period,
- 3 of Carolina’s 4 goals scored were all in a span of 39 seconds
- 2 of Vegas goals including the OT were were own goals by Carolina.
I was definitely wrong. I clearly didn’t give enough respect to the Knicks, to KAT, to OG.
But, damn, this team is just flowing right now. They made big plays when they needed them. They’re playing unselfish basketball. It’s just so much fun to watch.
Guess the Knicks are legitimate?
I don’t know why I have a hard time showing respect to this Knicks team, and I swear it’s nothing personal. I have nothing against the Knicks; their winning would be a great story.
I just didn’t think they’d be able to keep up with the Spurs, but I’m feeling like I was wrong.
Maybe once upon a time…
A few years ago, the thought of Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Curry together would signal parade planning for Golden State.
But at this age, and with their current bench, it just seems like too little, too late. Even if you add Giannis Antetokounmpo to that squad, it’s probably easier and better to just accept Wemby’s reign.
Gaming
Nah, I’m not down with this.
‘His estate and Snoop blessed it’? Pimping out the dead for a dollar in this way is corny as f*ck.
I just can’t get behind it, and no, I can’t articulate why.
Just no.
Sounds kind of monopolistic… (Probably because it is.)
I like Steam. I like having a single storefront to manage my games in. I hate having my game library spread out across storefronts.
But I should be able to if I wanted to, especially if it means cheaper games.
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Nah, it was awful.
I appreciate all the nostalgia from NES, SNES, and N64 Mario. I smirked when Yoshi showed up.
But the pacing of this movie was just bad. My kids got bored halfway through; I kept checking how much time was left.
The first one was much more coherent. 2.67/5.
